A second generation painter, in a city that keeps tearing itself down.
Kathy Heintz spent the first half of her life in the lush vegetation of Oregon and the second half in the stark desert of Nevada. She is a second-generation artist — raised beside her mother, a professional wildlife painter who worked alongside her as she grew. Her creative life has been encouraged by her husband and three children.
She has taught every grade of art from kindergarten to college, and currently teaches at Palo Verde High School. As an art teacher of more than 25 years, young people inspire her enthusiasm for her own work. She is a past member of the Henderson Art Association, Art Educators of Nevada, the Nevada Clay Guild, the Nevada Watercolor Society, and Alpha Delta Kappa.
“ When I first arrived here, I read Learning from Las Vegas by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown — which led me to appreciate Las Vegas, and the architectural symbolism of decorated sheds, where often the architecture is the advertisement.
Twenty-five years ago Kathy left the lush green of Oregon for the man-made neon of the desert. Over time she overcame culture shock; her aesthetics shifted as she began to love the desert and connect symbolism with the architecture.
Primarily working in watercolors, she takes inspiration from the beauty of southern Nevada — painting in a realistic, impressionist style that reflects the people and surroundings around her. She focuses on details that capture how places have changed over time, and uses her art to evoke memories of the past. Her paintings are often about contact with architecture, exploring the concept of landscape in a nostalgic way.
Kathy's work explores her quarter-century response to slices of Las Vegas. She has been captivated by the irony of the “history” of Las Vegas — barely a hundred years old — and fascinated by its transformative nature: its ongoing themes changing, and disappearing.
— Kathy